Aston Martin Rapide Shooting Brake

Here are two amazing photos for all of you shooting brake fanboys. Aston Martin is rumored to be introducing their Rapide Shooting Brake at the Geneva car show. So now all of the one-percenters will have their choice of three, big buck shooting brakes: the Porsche Panamera, the Ferrari FF and the Aston Martin Rapide.

Introducing the New MPG World Champion

Feast your eyes on the new Volkswagen XL1. While shown previously as a concept, Volkswagen announced last Thursday that the vehicle has been green-lighted for production. The miles-per-gallon performance of this car is absolutely astounding: it delivers 261 mpg!

It's a two seat plug-in that has an electric-only range of 32 miles. After that, an incredibly efficient diesel engine kicks in. How efficient you ask? The car needs only 8 horsepower to cruise at 62 miles per hour. Top speed of the XL1 is 99 mph and it will accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 12.7 seconds.

The car has gull-wing doors, spats over the rear wheels and camera-based rear mirrors, all to increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle. In fact, it will be the most aerodynamic car ever built, with a Cd of 0.19. By comparison, a Ferrari 458 Italia clocks in at 0.33. It weighs less than 1800 pounds and it's shorter than a Porsche Boxster.

The car will debut this year at the Geneva Car Show and will be available later this year as a 2014 model. Pricing and availability details have not yet been released.

In Praise of Automotive Art

Back when I was in the ad biz, the thirty-second TV spot was King of the Hill. While they are still the major source of revenue for broadcast networks, the network brass have to feel like a large herd of leaf-chomping Apatosaurus watching that enormous meteor hurdle directly at their favorite feeding spot.

Al Gore's Internet has changed everything. Imagine trying to convey the image, feel and sex of the new Jaguar F-Type (shown above) in a thirty second spot. Hate to be the creative team on that assignment. But now imagine the client said you had no time constraints, no product restraints, no network censors and you could create a work of automotive art to be placed on the Internet (to derive maximum enjoyment, view in full screen at 1080p):

Google Maps Hits the Slopes

All through college, there was a group of us that worked at Hoigaard's Ski Shop and we were really passionate about skiing in Colorado. Every chance we got, we were off to Aspen to ski. We'd take Mark Paulson's VW Beetle because we could make it from Minneapolis to Snowmass on just $16 of gas.

The mountains out there are huge and the trail system complex. Accordingly, you always had to carry a large, folded paper map of the ski resort to make your way down the mountain. On February 6, Google Maps put a sword through the heart of paper map publishers everywhere.

They just added ski run and chairlift maps for 38 US ski resorts. Now, when you search for any of the new ski resorts in the Google Maps app, you’ll be able to see the standardized colored runs. Green is for beginners, blue for intermediates, black for experts and orange for terrain parks – as well as the ski lifts as red dotted lines.

The full list of ski resorts is as follows:

• Alpine Meadows – CO
• Alyeska Resort – AK
• Aspen Highlands – CO
• Aspen Mountain – CO
• Attitash Mountain Resort – NH
• Big Sky Resort – MT
• Big White Ski Resort – BC
• Breckenridge Ski Resort – CO
• Brighton – UT
• Buttermilk – CO
• Copper Mountain – CO
• Crested Butte Mountain Resort – CO
• Deer Valley Resort – UT
• Granite Gorge – NH
• Heavenly Mountain Resort – CA
• Jackson Hole Mountain Resort – WY
• Lake Louise Ski Area – AB
• Mammoth Mountain – CA
• Mount Bachelor – OR
• Mount Shasta – CA
• Okemo Mountain Resort – VT
• Panorama Mountain Village – BC
• Park City Mountain Resort – UT
• Revelstoke Mountain Resort – BC
• Schweitzer Mountain Resort – ID
• Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort – CA
• Snowbasin – UT
• Snowmass – CO
• Squaw Valley – CA
• Steamboat Ski Resort – CO
• Stowe Mountain Resort – VT
• Sugar Bowl Resort – CA
• Sun Valley Resort – ID
• Telluride Ski Resort – CO
• Vail Mountain – CO
• Whistler Blackcomb – BC
• Wildcat Mountain – NH
• Winter Park Resort – CO

Nike Free Run+ 3

Nike Free Runs are my very favorite CrossFit shoes. In 2012 I took a detour and tried a pair of Inov-8's. That lasted about 2 weeks and I replaced them with a pair of Nike Free Run+ 2's. In my 4 years of doing CrossFit, I've had all three generations of Nike Free Runs and this third generation shoe is the best.

This shoe is unbelievably comfortable right out of the box. Weighing only 9.3 ounces, the shoes are incredibly light, but offer cushioning a good step above a minimalist shoe. I believe the secret to the comfort is in the sole design. The sole is comprised of 53 separate cushions, which gives the sole an otherworldly amount of flex. The sole can twist and bend like no other shoe, which results in an incredible amount of comfort.

While the sole itself is really soft, the key wear areas are fitted with rock hard carbon rubber (those are the black areas on the sole in the above picture). It's been my experience that other parts of the shoe wear out long before the sole does.

There are two big changes in the design of the + 3 compared to the + 2. There was no tongue in the + 2 and the +3 has a full floating tongue that makes the shoe more comfortable and easier to slide into. The + 2 had a plastic ectoskeleton that was part of the lacing system. While it worked well, I often wished I could get a little bit tighter fit. They have fixed that with the + 3, returning to a more conventional lacing system...plus, they added another lacing eyelet at the top of the shoe. While the old shoe had 5 eyelets, the new one has 6 and it makes a big difference in how snug you can get the shoe.

These shoes are just unbelievably comfortable. They are so comfortable that I own 2 pair....one for CrossFit and one for just wearing around the house. The shoes breathe better than any other I own. The area under the swoosh is pure mesh and the material above the toes and mid-foot wicks moisture away quickly.

At $100, the shoes are pricey...but well worth it. They are available in 15 different colors and come in both men's and women's models. I got mine at zappos.com. While they don't offer any special deals on the shoe, they do offer free overnight shipping and Zappos has a 365 day return policy. Anything goes wrong in that one year period, just send them back and Zappos will overnight you a new pair of shoes.

Here's a pair of Nike Free Run+ 3 in a color not found in nature,
which guarantees that it will warm the cockles of Sully's heart.

Morgan Superdry

This has got to be one of the sexiest cars on the planet. Launched in 2012, the Morgan Superdry is a limited edition of the Morgan 3-Wheeler and only 200 of the cars will be built. The engine sits out in front of the car...it's an air cooled S&S V-Twin that often finds it's way into custom Harley's. The car only weighs 1200 pounds, so that engine is good for a 0-60 time of six seconds flat.

The car is based on the Morgan 3-Wheelers of the 1920's and 1930's. It's a totally analog vehicle in a digital world. There's no power anything...to steer and brake takes CrossFit muscles. Big ones. And there's not a drop of electronic wizardry anywhere. No anti-lock brakes. No electronic stability control. It's a brand new car, but it's based on 90 year-old technology. It is driving in it's purest form.

The waiting list is long and it will set you back about fifty-large...a five thousand dollar premium over the base car. Check it out:

Steve Jobs' Yacht

It's been a little over a year since my hero passed on, but the work on the yacht he started designing in 2009 just wrapped up. The yacht was christened "Venus" after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The yacht made it's first public appearance just a few days ago in the Dutch city of Aalsmeer.

The look of the super ship is all Steve Jobs....sleek, elegant and simple. The yacht is made of lightweight aluminum and measures 80 meters long. The Jobs family was there for the unveiling and took it out for it's maiden voyage. A trip to the bridge reveals that the ship is operated by six, 27" iMacs. Steve is smiling up in heaven right now.